Electronic components are used in ever increasing numbers of consumer and commercial electronic products. Examples of some of these consumer and commercial products are televisions, personal computers, internet servers, cell phones, pagers, palm-type organizers, portable radios, car stereos, or remote controls. As the demand for these consumer and commercial electronics increases, there is also a demand for those same products to become smaller, more functional, and more portable for consumers and businesses.
As a result of the size decrease in these products, the components that comprise the products must also become smaller. Examples of some of those components that need to be reduced in size or scaled down are printed circuit or wiring boards, resistors, wiring, keyboards, touch pads, and chip packaging.
Components, therefore, are being broken down and investigated to determine if there are better building materials and methods that will allow them to be scaled down to accommodate the demands for smaller electronic components. In layered components, one goal appears to be decreasing the number of the layers while at the same time increasing the functionality and durability of the remaining layers. This task can be difficult, however, given that several of the layers and components of the layers should generally be present in order to operate the device.
Also, as electronic devices become smaller and operate at higher speeds, energy emitted in the form of heat increases dramatically. A popular practice in the industry is to use thermal grease, or grease-like materials, alone or on a carrier in such devices to transfer the excess heat dissipated across physical interfaces. Most common types of thermal interface materials are thermal greases, phase change materials, and elastomer tapes. Thermal greases or phase change materials have lower thermal resistance than elastomer tape because of the ability to be spread in very thin layers and provide intimate contact between adjacent surfaces. Typical thermal impedance values range between 0.6-1.6° C. cm2/w. However, a serious drawback of thermal grease is that thermal performance deteriorates significantly after thermal cycling, such as from 65° C. to 150° C., or after power cycling when used in VLSI chips. It has also been found that the performance of these materials deteriorates when large deviations from surface planarity causes gaps to form between the mating surfaces in the electronic devices or when large gaps between mating surfaces are present for other reasons, such as manufacturing tolerances, etc. When the heat transferability of these materials breaks down, the performance of the electronic device in which they are used is adversely affected.
Thus, there is a continuing need to: a) design and produce thermal interface materials and layered materials that meet customer specifications while minimizing the size of the device and number of layers; and b) develop reliable methods of producing desired thermal interface materials and layered materials and components comprising contemplated thermal interface and layered materials.